Beerology: Beer (and some Food) + Science

Today we bring you a review of last weekend’s Beerology from our guest author Adam Kern (owner of My Buffalo Shirts). He’s been writing about beer for a couple months now, click here to see all of his previous Beer Porns….

“Wine stands on one leg; beer on four”-Sam Calagione (Dogﬁsh Head Owner)

Over the Weekend the Buffalo Science Museum held an event incorporating Beer and science which was appropriately called ‘Beerology‘. This was there 3rd annual event and I was lucky enough to purchase two tickets back in January before this event sold out. Tickets were $40 a piece which included a Beerology tasting glass with 10 drink tickets. Each ticket was good for one 3-ounce beer tasting. In addition, each person was able to sample local foods, cheese, snacks and desserts. Iʼll leave the food to Don and Iʼll focus on the Beer part.

Beerology also offered various “Beer talks” throughout the night from experts in the industry. Each talk was approximately 30 minutes that focused on a particular topic of beer. The topics included, Science of Beer; Malt: The Soul of Beer; Beer and Food Pairings; and Buffaloʼs Brewing Industry. Unfortunately there was not enough time during the event to go to all the “Beer talks” and do all the tastings. However, I was able to attend the Beer and Food Parings talk by Ethan Cox from Community Beer Works. It was a very in-depth discussion on how the human taste works while incorporating Beer and Food.

On to the Beer review….

Beerology offered beer samples from 18 different breweries, their were local favorites to some breweries from out of state and even overseas. The goal going in was to try to sample brews that I havenʼt had before (possibly for full write ups later). Here is the list of beers I sampled:

EBC – “16”

Dogﬁsh Head – “Aprihop”

Flying Bison – “Blizzard Bock”

Great Lakes – “Eliot Ness”

Long Trail – “Blackbeary”

Magic Hat – “Vinyl”

NewCastle – “Amber Ale”

Ommegang – “Abby Ale”

Pearl Street – “German Schwarzbier”

Samuel Adams – “Latitude 48 IPA”

Sarnac – “Imperial Ale”

Without going into a lot of detail of each tasting I sampled, Iʼll just highlight a few of the best and the worst as well as some interesting ones.

One of the surprises of the night came from Pearl St. Brewing Co. creating a silky smooth batch of “German Schwarzbier”. The dark easy drinking beer was one of my favorites of the night. In talking to the brewmaster from Pearl St, he mentioned that its a seasonal brew and it will probably last for another week at the restaurant.

Dogﬁsh Head Brewing Co. was represented through Consumer beverages and brought an interesting pouring apparatus for their Aprihop Brew (seen below). It’s a dogﬁshhead invention called Randall the Enamel Animal. As I was told “Randall” has fresh hops and herbs in it which infuses into Aprihop as it is poured. This process did bring down the Apricot ﬂavor but gave it a whole hearted hoppy/earthly ﬂavor.

A particular brew I disliked was Ommegang – “Abby Ale”. It was just an overall very bitter beer which for me made it tough to drink. It was strongly recommended by others but I just didn’t see what everyone was raving about.

I have to admit that I tried Newcastle for the very ﬁrst time at Beerology and I was very impressed. So much so that It may become one of my go to beers. It was a smooth and tasty ale that was not to sweet but not to bitter. Come to ﬁnd out that this is one of Donʼs favorite beers as well.

Throughout the night each person was asked to ﬁll out ballots for best brewery and best beer. I’m not sure who won, but Iʼll update this when I ﬁnd out.

Overall, the event was a huge success. The forty bucks was a bit steep but the event offered quite a bit from beer to food to some awesome beer education. In addition, it was a fundraiser that went to a good cause (educational programming at the BMS and the Tifft Nature Preserve). The sold out crowd, however, did make it a bit tough to stand in lines and move around for beer and food. Besides the crowd my only feedback is that I wish they made it longer. The 3-hours did not give a person enough time to do both beer and food tastings and attend multiple “Beer talks”. Maybe next year they can do tastings in the talks so people donʼt have to chose one or the other.

My advice is to buy your tickets as soon as possible for next years Beerology because they will no doubt sell out to this this awesome event again.

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One thought on “Beerology: Beer (and some Food) + Science”

Beaker

I would agree that Beerology was both fun and educational. I would have to agree 100% with the voting of best beer and best food (Ellicotville Brewing Company’s #16 * Best Food: K Sisters Pierogies) However I would disagree that Ommegang was the best brewery. I would pick Flying bison or EBC. Overall the food, beer, and talks were great. Excited to do this again next year!!!